During the course of operating a vehicle, it may be necessary to tow the vehicle for one reason or another—for example if the vehicle were to break down, slide off the road into a ditch, to get stuck in mud, snow, sand or other types of terrain. In these situations, it is desirable to have a means of simply and safely dislodging the vehicle if it is stuck and towing it to a desired location (i.e. to a garage, back onto the road, etc.).
There is always a danger, particularly where the vehicle being towed or to be towed is heavy or firmly stuck, that the soft tow apparatus can snap or break at any of a number of points, when it experiences a shock load, or if the vehicle being towed is simply too heavy to move. For example, the soft tow apparatus might break along its length or at the connection of the soft tow apparatus to the vehicle, or where it is sewn, or the receivers on the vehicle, or parts of the receivers, to which the soft tow apparatus is attached may also be pulled off of the vehicle resulting in projectiles that can do a significant amount of damage to persons inside the vehicles or standing nearby, or to a vehicle or other property. In fact, individuals have been killed or severely injured when towing belts have broken, or when hooks, shackles, trailer balls, etc. have become dislodged.
Described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,871,097 is a pivoting hitch assembly that may be used in towing applications. As a safety measure, this hitch assembly may be used in combination with a towing strap that is designed to fail before anything else in the tow system breaks. Therefore, the receiver or other items will not become projectiles that can cause harm to persons or property. However, the risk remains when using such a towing system that the towing strap, which carries a significant amount of kinetic and potential energy when it breaks, could injure nearby persons or damage the vehicles nearby.
The prior art discloses previous efforts to minimize damage caused by the breaking of a tow strap. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,587 discloses a pulling arrangement disposed between a traction device and an object to be towed which includes a pulling device and a guide element operatively coupled to the pulling device for guiding fragments thereof when the pulling device fails. Fastening devices are disposed on the guide element for fastening the guide element, independently of the pulling device, to connecting elements of the traction device and of the object to be towed. The independent fastening of the guide element to the connecting elements of the traction device and of the object to be towed ensures uniform guidance of the pulling device being torn apart regardless of the breaking point on the pulling device.
As another example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,845,669 discloses a safety restraint for use with a towing assembly. The restraint includes an elongated, hollow body that receives the towing assembly. The elongated, hollow body is formed from at least two fibers that are woven into a multi-axis braid pattern, resembling a Chinese finger trap. The cylindrical body at least partially encapsulates the towing assembly. In the event of failure of the towing assembly or its components, the restraint's inner walls press inward on the encapsulated towing assembly to restrain or capture failed components.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,101, not directed to tow strap failures, discloses an elastically retractable tow strap used for towing one vehicle with a second vehicle. The heavy-duty tow strap is coupled with a second strap of elastic material at a number of points along the length of the recovery strap, such that the tow strap forms loops along the length of the elastic strap. The primary object of the invention is to provide an elastically retractable tow strap that will extend and retract in response to the changing distance between the two vehicles.
Disadvantages of the prior art above are that they that are either difficult to manufacture, difficult to use by consumers, or both.
There is a need for a towing apparatus that effectively absorbs all of the energy from the high velocity breaking soft towing apparatus, while still being easy to use by consumers and easy to manufacture.